Principal Investigator(s):Hofferth, Sandra, University of Michigan. Survey Research Center; Stafford, Frank P., University of Michigan. Survey Research Center; Yeung, Wei-Jun J., University of Michigan. Survey Research Center; Duncan, Greg J., University of Michigan. Survey Research Center; Hill, Martha S., University of Michigan. Survey Research Center; Lepkowski, James, University of Michigan. Survey Research Cente; Morgan, James N., University of Michigan. Survey Research Center

Summary:

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is an
ongoing data collection effort begun in 1968 in an attempt to fill
the need for a better understanding of the determinants of family
income and its changes. Core data are collected annually, with each
new wave of family data constituting a separate data file (Parts
2-27, 201-205). Data on individuals are contained in Part 1,
Cross-Year Individual File, 1968-1993 (Waves 1-26) [Public Release
II], and an early release of individual-level data through 1999 is
included in Part 201, Cross-Year Individu... (more info)

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is an
ongoing data collection effort begun in 1968 in an attempt to fill
the need for a better understanding of the determinants of family
income and its changes. Core data are collected annually, with each
new wave of family data constituting a separate data file (Parts
2-27, 201-205). Data on individuals are contained in Part 1,
Cross-Year Individual File, 1968-1993 (Waves 1-26) [Public Release
II], and an early release of individual-level data through 1999 is
included in Part 201, Cross-Year Individual File, 1968-1999 (Waves
1-31) [Public Release I]. The PSID has continued to trace individuals
from the original national sample of approximately 4,800 households,
whether those individuals are living in the same dwelling or with the
same people. The investigators hoped to discover whether most
short-term changes in economic status are due to forces outside the
family or if they can be traced to something in the individual's own
background or in the pattern of his or her thinking and behavior.
The data can shed light on what causes family income to rise above or
fall below the poverty line. In line with the theoretical model, the
questions asked fall generally under the headings of economic status,
economic behavior, demographics, and attitudes. Specifically, they
deal with topics such as employment, income sources and amounts,
housing, car ownership, food expenditures, transportation,
do-it-yourself home maintenance and car repairs, education,
disability, time use, family background, family composition changes,
and residential location. Content of a more sociological or
psychological nature is also included in some waves of the
study. Information gathered in the survey applies to the
circumstances of the family unit as a whole (e.g., type of housing)
or to particular persons in the family unit (e.g., age,
earnings). While some information is collected about all individuals
in the family unit, the greatest level of detail is ascertained for
the primary adults heading the family unit. Core topics in the PSID
include income sources and amounts, poverty status, public assistance
in the form of food or housing, other financial matters (e.g., taxes,
inter-household transfers), family structure and demographic measures
(e.g., marital events, birth and adoptions, children forming
households), labor market participation (e.g., employment status,
vacation/sick time, occupation, industry, work experience), housing
(e.g., own/rent, house value/rent payment, size), geographic mobility
(e.g., when and why moved, where head of household grew up, all
states head of household lived in), and socioeconomic background
(e.g., education, ethnicity, religion, military service, parents'
education, occupation, poverty status). Beginning in 1985,
comprehensive retrospective fertility and marriage histories of
individuals in the households were assembled.

Universe:
Households that had at least one member of the
noninstitutionalized population of the 48 contiguous states and the
District of Columbia. The portion of the sample called the SRC
subsample, when taken by itself, was representative of the households
in the coterminous United States in 1968. The second subsample
consisted of the low-income nonelderly households sampled by the
United States Census Bureau for the 1966-1967 Survey of Economic
Opportunity. These households, drawn with unequal probabilities of
selection that depended on geographic location, age, race, and income,
were added to the sample to insure that there would be a sufficient
number of low-income and, especially, Black low-income households to
permit separate analyses of these populations.

Data Types:
aggregate data,
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

The "original" PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS
(PSID) (ICPSR 7439) has been broken out by ICPSR into three separate
data collections: PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS, 1968-1999: ANNUAL
CORE DATA (ICPSR 7439), PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS, 1968-1999:
SUPPLEMENTAL FILES (ICPSR 3202), and PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS,
1989-1990: LATINO SAMPLE (ICPSR 3203). This collection, PANEL STUDY OF
INCOME DYNAMICS, 1968-1999: ANNUAL CORE DATA (ICPSR 7439), now
contains only the cross-year individual files and family files.

Parts 1-27 are all Public Release II (or final release) versions of
the PSID data. Parts 201-205 are Public Release I (or early release)
versions.

The Public Release I files (Parts 201-205) are
preliminary and should be ordered by experienced PSID users
only. Documentation for these files is incomplete, and PSID staff will
offer virtually no assistance with their use. ICPSR can offer only
technical assistance in reading the files, and can provide no
substantive advice on their use. These files will be replaced with the
final versions of the data and documentation when they have been
completed. All but the most experienced users are asked to wait until
that time to order the data.

Weights are provided for
analysis. The weights for individuals are different from those for
families.

Users are
encouraged to check the PSID Web site at
http://www.isr.umich.edu/src/psid/ for updates to this
collection. A complete bibliography of publications can also be accessed
at the site.

Methodology

Sample:
The sample is a combination of a representative
cross-section of nearly 3,000 families selected from the University of
Michigan Survey Research Center's (SRC's) master sampling frame and a
subsample of about 1,900 low-income families previously interviewed by
the United States Census Bureau for the Office of Economic
Opportunity. The combined sample is appropriately weighted to be
representative of all people in the United States. Heads of the same
families have been interviewed each year since 1968, as have the heads
of families containing members who were part of a 1968 household and
later left to start households of their own or to join another
household. Panel losses have been more than offset by the addition of
these newly formed families, bringing the present sample size to near
7,000.

Version(s)

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 81 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 80 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.

2002-09-25 This collection has been updated with Public
Release II (final release) data for the Cross-Year Individual File
(Part 1) and the Family Files (Parts 2-27), encompassing the years
1968-1993. Also, Public Release I (early release) data are now
available for the Cross-Year Individual File, 1968-1999 (Part 201),
and the Family Files, 1994-1997 (Parts 202-205). Corresponding SAS and
SPSS data definition statements and PDF codebooks have been added for
each file. The "original" PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS (PSID) (ICPSR
7439) has been broken out by ICPSR into three separate data
collections: PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS, 1968-1999: ANNUAL CORE
DATA (ICPSR 7439), PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS, 1968-1999:
SUPPLEMENTAL FILES (ICPSR 3202), and PANEL STUDY OF INCOME DYNAMICS,
1989-1990: LATINO SAMPLE (ICPSR 3203). This collection, PANEL STUDY
OF INCOME DYNAMICS, 1968-1999: ANNUAL CORE DATA (ICPSR 7439), now
contains only the cross-year individual files and family files.

1997-02-24 (1) Part 1, Cross-Year Individual File, 1968-1992
(Waves I-XXV), and its codebook and SAS and SPSS data definition
statements were reissued and are current as of October 1996. The most
significant changes are to V32015 (MARITAL STATUS OF MOTHER AT TIME OF
INDIVIDUAL'S BIRTH). Minor changes were also made in that file to
variables derived from Part 68, Childbirth and Adoption History File,
1985-1992 (Waves XVIII-XXV) (V32009-V32014 and V32016-V32032). Also in
Part 1, variable V32700 (RELEASE NUMBER) was added and has a value of
"003" for all records. (2) Part 68, Childbirth and Adoption History
File, 1985-1992 (Waves XVIII-XXV), as well as its WordPerfect 5.1
codebook and SAS and SPSS data definition statements, were reissued
and are current as of August 1996. The most significant changes to
Part 68 are to V7 (MARITAL STATUS OF MOTHER AT TIME OF INDIVIDUAL'S
BIRTH). The codebook for Part 68 is also available in hardcopy form
upon request from ICPSR. (3) Part 49, Family File, 1991 (Wave XXIV),
and its codebook and SAS and SPSS data definition statements were
reissued and are current as of July 1996. In that data file, values
for V20243 (1991 CORE FAMILY WEIGHT) and V20244 (1991 LATINO FAM
WEIGHT) were recomputed--the changes affect 282 core families and 290
Latino families. V20245 (COMBINED FAM WEIGHT) is not affected. Also in
Part 49, the values for V19001 (RELEASE NUMBER) were changed to
"003". In addition, the questionnaire for Part 49 is now available
as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. (4) An errata sheet for the
PSID CD-ROM (CD0011) details the above-mentioned changes to these
files. This sheet is available through the ICPSR Website and in
hardcopy form upon request from ICPSR. (5) New data files with
corresponding codebooks and SAS and SPSS data definition statements
were also added: Part 76, Family Wealth Supplement Data, 1984 (Wave
XVII), Part 77, Family Wealth Supplement Data, 1989 (Wave XXII), Part
78, Family Wealth Supplement Data, 1994 (Wave XXVII), Part 201,
Cross-Year Individual File, 1968-1995 (Waves I-XXVIII) [Early
Release], Part 202, Family File, 1993 (Wave XXVI) [Early Release],
Part 203, Family File, 1994 (Wave XXVII) [Early Release], and Part
204, Family File, 1995 (Wave XXVIII) [Early Release]. The
questionnaires for Parts 203 and 204 are PDF files, while the
documentation for Parts 202-204 are in ASCII format. An ASCII version
of the questionnaire for Part 202 is available for downloading from
the PSID website, and a PDF file of that questionnaire is being
created by the PSID staff. (5) The early release files (Parts 201-204)
are preliminary and should be ordered by experienced PSID users
only. Documentation for these files are incomplete, and PSID staff
will offer virtually no assistance with their use. ICPSR can offer
only technical assistance in reading the files, and can provide no
substantive advice on their use. These files will be replaced with the
final version of the data and codebook when it has been completed. All
but the most experienced users are asked to wait until that time to
order the data. (6) Users are encouraged to check the PSID homepage at
www.umich.edu/~psid/ for updates. (7) Users should note that the
wealth variables previously released in Part 35, Family File, 1984
(Wave XVII), and Part 45, Family File, 1989 (Wave XXII) will not, in
general (on a case-by-case basis), match the values released in Parts
76-77, the family wealth supplement data for 1984 and 1989, due to the
implementation of a new missing data imputation technique. (8) The
questionnaire for Part 70, Self-Administered Questionnaire
Supplemental File, 1990 (Wave XXIII), is now available and is in
WordPerfect 7.0 format. In addition, the data file for Part 70 has
been replaced. The previous version contained null characters. (9)
The codebook for Part 72, Telephone Health Care Cost Questionnaire
Supplemental File, is now available, and the codebook for Part 74,
Parent Health Supplement, 1991 (Wave XXIV), has been replaced. (10)
The following files previously contained "high" ASCII characters.
These characters have been converted to US ASCII to enable all users
to read the files: Codebooks for Parts 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19,
21, 23, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 51, 55, 58, and 64, the SPSS
data definition statements for Part 11, and the SAS data definition
statements for Parts 12, 62, 70, and 72.